Category Archives: Blog

“This one a long time have I watched. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm. What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. (turning to Luke) You are reckless!” – Yoda, from The Empire Strikes Back Re-reading my posts here, I’ve noticed … Continue reading →

Having read my last post, Leila suggested that I might like to counterbalance my anti-hippie tirade with some positive thoughts on our time in Goa. It’s a fair point, so here are a few kind words about the place. First, the food. Being as it’s on the coast, Goan cuisine … Continue reading →

Here are some more photos from our travels – these are all hi-res film scans, from the 3 rolls that we’ve got processed so far (chosen at random from a stash of about 15-20, so there are plenty more to come). They’ve turned out really well – Leila is a … Continue reading →

I’ve spent the last few days trying to write a blog entry that does a good job of summarising my ambivalence at spending time in Goa. We’ve been here for the last few days, and it’s been a while since I’ve been to a place that has evoked such conflicting … Continue reading →

It seems to be part of the Bombay tourist experience to spend a day as a Bollywood extra, so when a guy grabbed us on the street the other day and offered us 500 rupees to record some voiceovers for an upcoming film, we decided to give it a go. … Continue reading →

Apologies for a delayed entry. It’s been an… interesting week or so, so I’ve had to take a little time to think about quite how to document it here. We’re still in Bombay – as things are shaping up, we may be here for a bit longer, although everything is … Continue reading →

…and back again. It’s been quite a few days here. Reading over my my last post, I realised that I got carried away with political ramblings and forgot to narrate the story of our trip back to Mumbai. It was quite a trek, to say the least. The train from … Continue reading →

Sitting this morning in Basilico, Mumbai’s premier Italian restaurant and only the second place we’ve found in India where you can get a really good coffee, I read in the “International” section of The Times of India that George Bush’s pre-State of the Union address approval rating is the lowest … Continue reading →

Back in Mumbai, so it seems like a good time to post the remainder of the photos from our first stay here, nearly two months ago. Still trying to extricate newer photos from the CD that they’re stored on, and there are a shitload more still on the camera, but … Continue reading →

Quiet times here. Still in Varanasi, which has proven a very pleasant and interesting place to hang out. We’re still here for several reasons – mostly because we like it, but also because we’ve been uncertain of our next move until today. I’ve discussed Varanasi a little in my last … Continue reading →

…some photos. This is a total pain in the arse to do, so these might have to do for a while – but I’ll try to do one more post after this (Blogger only seems to want to upload them a few at a time). These are all from the … Continue reading →

And the award for The Most Bizarre Expression of Religious Devotion goes to… The sadhu who we saw in the paper the other day, who has not put his right hand down for 22 years. Yes, he’s been sitting somewhere for the last 22 years with his right hand in … Continue reading →

The latest leg of our trip has taken us away from Agra (thankfully) and via an interminable train journey to Varanasi, city of Shiva and one of Hinduism’s holiest sites. After a false start on our first day here, when we endured a drawn-out battle with the local rickshaw drivers … Continue reading →

So, just under six weeks after arriving in India, we’ve finally made our way to Agra to see the famed Taj Mahal. It was a strange experience. It’s kinda like seeing the Mona Lisa in real life – you’ve seen so many photos etc that the real thing is… not … Continue reading →

Christ, what a couple of days. First, we got our MP3 players back. Yay. Of all the material things we own, they’re pretty much the worst thing that could have been stolen – I spent the best part of a week burning pretty much every CD I own onto the … Continue reading →